Finally, BDA to start work on the long-pending peripheral ring road; will call tenders by February

Once functional, the 65.5-km-long Peripheral Ring Road will relieve the pressure of traffic on roads like Outer Ring Road

The 12-year-old grand plan of the State government of Karnataka, Peripheral Ring Road (PRR), is set to be a reality soon with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) working on an action plan for survey and drafting the tender documents for allocating the work for the 65.5km ring road connecting peripheral areas of Bengaluru.

The topographical survey will be completed by the end of December and the traffic survey will be done by January 15. In the recently held meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, G Parameshwara, chaired by the BDA commissioner, these dates were finalized.

The BDA officials have also set January 15 as the deadline for the first draft of the tender document to be prepared and the tender will be finalised by January 25, 2019. A BDA official said, “By the direction of government, we are expected to announce the tender for the PRR by February 5.”

Earlier, Peripheral Ring Road Development Limited, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), was formed to work on the PRR. The authorities have also set a timeline to expedite work by this SPV.

Proposed changes in finance module

Earlier, the BDA officials said that the tender will be announced only after the land acquisition is completed following the NHAI rules and regulations. The BDA officials have submitted various proposals regarding compensation for land acquired. The most pertinent issue is the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) as compensation for land. The documents that BM accessed suggest that the officials have recommended that TDR compensation be increased from the existing practice of paying two times the land value to three times the value for agricultural land. The department has also requested the government to see if compensation can be awarded by cash.

The BDA is also planning to re-formulate another technical committee for periodic monitoring and access of the detailed project report (DPR) information regularly. It is also attempting to rope in Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited (iDeCK), a joint venture between the Government of Karnataka (GoK), Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC), and Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC), to take care of the financial issues and fund raising work under 4(G) exemption of the KTTP Act, 1999. The government is yet to give nod on these subjects submitted by the BDA.

Cost of topographical survey to go up

In the meeting, the BDA disclosed that the topographical survey is being done by ALCON Consulting Engineers (India) Private Limited and the traffic survey work has been undertaken by STUP Consultants

Interestingly, ALCON was entrusted with this work way back in 2006. ALCON had quoted a fee of Rs 52,500 per kilometre of the survey. In the recent meeting, where ALCON representatives were also consulted, the company proposed a new budget. Topographical work done 12 years ago was different and the expenses of tools and materials have gone up since then, they explained.

A kilometre of the topographical survey will cost the government Rs 99,000 now. For the entire stretch of 65.53 kilometre, the survey will cost a sum of Rs 64.88 lakh (excluding GST). The BDA officials have approved of this costing and have forwarded the proposal to the state government as the work has to start at the earliest. An official said, “Without a survey by the government, we cannot issue a tender. Hence, the request has been sent to the government to take a call on the same for speedy start of the work.

Rs 10,000 crore allocated already

So far, Rs 10,000 crore has been allocated for the PRR project. In the financial year 2018-19, Rs 1,000 crore has been approved, while Rs 2,000 crore has been approved for 2019-20. For 2020-21 and 2021-22, the sum approved is Rs 3,500 crore for each year. The remaining amount, starting from 2022-23 to 2032-33 will be given annually through infrastructure cess.

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